Rage II 32 Hours
by QTR
Summary: The sequel to my fic, Rage. Grissom has been dreading this day. The day when the kidnapper has struck again. Finished. GSR.
1. Kidnapped

Everyone was late that morning- the traffic was horrible. Cars were parked on the side of the road, and everyone was moving at two miles an hour. Everyone called the graveyard shift supervisor, Gil Grissom, or the day shift supervisor, Conrad Ecklie, to tell one of them they would be late.

Everyone drove up to the lab quickly. Warrick Brown jumped out of his car, grabbing his jacket from the passenger seat and closing his door before locking it up.

Nick Stokes gulped down the rest of his now freezing cold coffee, before jumping out of his Tahoe and running towards the lab entrance.

Catherine Willows grabbed her coffee, closing the door to her SUV as she did so. She was disappointed that she had already finished her coffee- she needed more.

Greg Sanders arrived a bit late. He stumbled out of his car fashioning old blue jeans, converse sneakers, and his normal hair-do. He ran to the entrance.

When Gil Grissom arrived, he found everyone at the lab who had arrived was standing outside. He ran out of his car. "What's going on here?" he asked. "Gil, I didn't give my shift the day off, so I don't know about you, but we need to get in here," Eckile told Grissom. Grissom was a bit confused. He tried opening the doors- they were locked, and locked tight. He grabbed his key and tried unlocking the door- nothing.

"Alright, I think we're going to need to kick down the door," Grissom said. "Nick, Warrick- help me, please," he said facing the two male members of his team. "Alright, one…" Grissom looked around. "Two…" His eyes sought out Catherine, but no Sara. "Three!" Maybe she was just late…everyone barged into the building. Inside, they found the night guards unconscious on the floor. Grissom ran ahead of them all.

A small black string hung from the ceiling with a folded piece of paper on the end. Grissom slipped on a glove and took the piece of paper. He read it to himself before his eyes widened and he showed it to everyone else.

_"Remember me, Mr. Grissom? Yes, of course you do. Anyways, incase you haven't noticed yet, your little CSI hasn't made it to work yet. Such a pity, isn't it? If you are wondering why I only have Sidle, it is because that was my employer's wish: he told me he wanted Sidle dead- that much he said for sure. I will keep sending you letters but keep in mind that I am timing you, and if you don't find me in a matter of thirty-two hours, Sidle dies. Until then, Mr. Grissom; until, then."_

"Bastard," Catherine said reading the letter with tears in her eyes. "That sick bastard!" she buried her face in Warrick's chest. He just rubbed her back and hugged her. Nick looked at Grissom, who was speechless. Sara had been through enough, and there was just something about her that made him smile every time he saw her. She had a life to live, and Grissom just didn't understand why anyone would want to take that away from her.

"Catherine, Warrick- I want you at Sara's apartment immediately. Greg, Nick- you're with me. We're going to process the lab, seeing how the perpetrator got inside the lab," he said with anger and determination in his voice. Catherine and Warrick ran out of the lab. "And where the _hell_ is Brass?" he said irritated. "I'm right here, commando," Brass said outside. "Brass- I want the whole lab taped off. Whatever it takes- roadblocks, the works," he said walking off.

He _would_ find Sara; he had to. He remembered the last thing she had said to him, which was the night before. She had just finished a case. The only thing she said was, "Goodnight." Goodnight, that was it. He sighed as he thought about it- was that going to be the last time she said goodnight to him? He mentally slapped himself in the face.

_Get it together, Gil! Stop thinking like that! You **are** going to find her, so just shut up!_ He thought to himself. He walked into the locker room and went over to her locker. He knew her combination- he knew everyone's, but he wasn't about to reveal that to anybody. He turned the lock a certain amount of times to the right, and then to the left. The lock finally clicked off and he set it down.

He opened the locker slowly. The locker reminded him even more of her. Her scent poured out of the locker, and for a minute he thought she was really there, but then, remembering that she wasn't, his eyes filled with sadness. He tried not to think about it and he went through her things, looking for fibers, letters, anything. He finally found something folded up inside her locker and took it out with a gloved hand. He opened it up and read it.

_Ms. Sidle,_

_Hello again. I bet you can guess who this is. Anyways, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Tomorrow night, around nine 'o clock, I will be coming for you. And if you don't come willingly, then I'll just have to take you by force. Oh and one more thing- don't tell the police or I will make sure that I don't only kill you, but each and every member of your team will be killed. Until tomorrow, Ms. Sidle._

Grissom got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He checked the postdate- it read that it was sent to her two days ago. He was suddenly mad at himself- he let her just leave like nothing was wrong, and he didn't think anything of it! But…then again…she wasn't acting different than her normal self or anything, so he didn't think anything was wrong…but the fact that the perpetrator had let Sara know before he acted made Grissom shiver.

Catherine and Warrick taped off Sara's apartment and went inside, looking for any evidence pertaining to the case- fibers, blood, hair, fingerprints; anything would have helped. They found nothing. Either she had never even made it to her apartment building that night, or the perpetrator had cleaned her apartment from head to toe. They found absolutely nothing…or so at least they thought.

Catherine went into Sara's bedroom. She looked around with her flashlight shining onto the objects in front of her, and found the mirror in her room had been shattered, and there was another slip of paper taped to the mirror. Catherine quickly tore the paper off the mirror and read the note.

_"Good job to whomever found this next note. As you can see, the apartment is spotless. I am a very discreet fellow, as you will soon find out even more than you know now. Find the next note. I do want you to know, however- I am so much enjoying this!"_

"Bastard!" Catherine said running out of the bedroom. "Warrick, I found another note," she said showing it to him. He read it. "Damn…" he said sighing. "Let's go back to the lab and tell Grissom."

Grissom dusted the first note he had found- no prints. This wasn't any surprise, because obviously this guy wasn't planning on being caught. Warrick and Catherine ran into the lab, handing Grissom the second note, which just made him even angrier. "We…have nothing," Grissom said, now realizing it for the first time. He sat down.

The news hit everyone like a ton of bricks- one of their teammates was missing, and they only had 30 more hours left to find her. What was worse is that they had nothing to help them try and find her. Catherine's eyes filled up with tears again and Warrick hugged her again. Nick and Greg were devastated. For the first time ever, they all realized what an important role Sara had played in their lives, and when their friend needed them most, they had no way of helping her.

**To be continued.**


	2. A Lead

"Grissom, what about the surveillance tapes?" Nick said. "…We could try it," Grissom said. Warrick went to retrieve the tapes. When he returned, he held them up. "Well, they're still in there," he said handing them to Grissom. Grissom went into his office to watch them. The rest of the team followed.

"Alright…here we see her leaving at about 8:00…" Grissom said. On the tape, Sara was walking out to the parking lot. She drove off. Grissom then headed out of the lab and drove off. But then- they saw Sara's car return to the parking lot. "What was she doing?" Catherine asked. "I don't know, she must've had something she needed to do," Grissom said. They watched from the parking lot as she entered the lab again.

She went off to the different labs, working on certain things, as usual. Then, they saw a black car enter the parking lot. A person got out of the car and entered the building; Sara had forgotten to lock it up. As they watched them enter the building, inside they saw the man walk down the halls, obviously looking for Sara. He walked into the lab she was in, and at this point they were out of the camera's view.

The last thing they saw was the night guards being knocked out and the intruder carrying an unconscious Sara out to the car in his arms.

"That didn't give us anything," Warrick said sighing. "…That's why the guy didn't take the tapes with him, he knew they wouldn't help us…" Grissom sighed. "Can you get some plate numbers off of the license plate?" Catherine asked him. He stopped the tape and zoomed in to the license plate. "He was smart, he covered the license plate," Nick said. The license plate had a white cover over it. "Damn!" Warrick said walking out of the room. Grissom just lowered his head.

"Mr. Grissom, there's a package for you at the front desk," came the secretary's voice. Grissom quickly stood up and walked down the hall until he reached the front reception desk. He picked up the package, now wearing gloves. The package was clearly meant for him to open; it had his name on it. He walked to his office and opened the package.

Inside, was a tape recorder, which Grissom listened to; nothing was really on the tape, until he got towards the middle of it. On the tape, was some static, but then he heard something else- a woman's voice; a voice which he quickly recognized to be Sara's. He heard footsteps and then a yell, and then nothing. He heard some papers shuffling in the background and it sounded like someone was lifting something- Grissom thought that this feed was from when the man had grabbed Sara.

Then, on the tape he heard a car door opening and then close, and then the tape stopped. He turned off the tape recorder and sighed. "That bastard wants us to hear and imagine everything she did…" he sighed sitting down and rubbing his head. There was 26 hours to go, and they still had nothing.

"How are we supposed to find her if we don't have anything to lead us to her?" Catherine asked angrily. "The video feed was useless- he covered his face!" she said sighing. "And even if we check to see who all was released the day Tony Wilston got out of jail, that just gives us a name! No address, nothing!" she said sighing. They decided to go through the computer to find the name of the man who had been released.

His name was Theodore Hoover; he had been arrested for drug dealing and attempted murder. They looked to see if he owned any properties- they got no hits. Grissom sighed as he put his head down in his hands.

The clock was ticking away- the kidnapper obviously knew they would never be able to find her. His records were empty- no previous home, no owned properties. Then, Grissom saw something.

The man had a car, obviously the one he had seen on the surveillance feed. He checked to see what the plate numbers were- luckily, they were Nevada plates, and so he got them: 476RY3. He ran out of his office. "Brass! Tell the police to look for a black Mercedes Benz; plates numbers '476RY3'," he said running out the lab. He jumped into his car and drove out of the parking lot.


	3. 12 Hours Left

Grissom drove up to the car. They had found it. It was parked outside a large run-down building. The police followed after him and ran out of their cars. Led by Brass, they circled around the building until they said the perimeter was secure. Then, Brass kicked down the front door.

They looked around, but they didn't see anything. There were old chairs and broken tables in the building, but not signs of any more people.

"It's clear!" Brass said backing out of the building and letting Grissom inside.

The building was dark and huge; it gave Grissom an eerie feeling as he walked through the building. Every time he took a step, he felt like someone was watching him. He turned around frequently to see if anyone was; no one was ever there.

He walked through the building with his flashlight in front of him. He heard some static, which frightened him and made him jump. He turned to look for the source of the static and saw an old television in one of the rooms. The screen showed a dark room, with no sources of light coming from any direction. He adjusted the television until the picture was better seen.

A dim light came on. Grissom looked to see an unconscious Sara lying on the floor of the room, her arms tied in front of her and her legs tied behind her. Then, footsteps were heard- not behind Grissom, but on the tape. He looked closer to the see the approaching figure.

The figure sat down behind Sara, crossing his legs. A wide grin appeared across his face.

"Hello, Mr. Grissom" said the figure; they had an eerie-sounding voice which made then twitch each time they heard him speak. "I just thought I'd say hello," he said smiling. "Anyways, it's…what now…" he said checking his watch. "Ah, yes…exactly 24 hours," he said pulling his sleeve back down. "So," he started, clearing his throat. "You better get cracking or she's going to die," he said pointing behind him.

"Which…really is a pity because she's quite a beauty," he said brushing some of Sara's hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. "So, hurry up, Mr. Grissom! Until next time, ciao." And then the television turned black. No sound, no picture.

Grissom growled angrily and took his rage out on the television. His hand turned red after smacking the television a good few times. He then saw something that made him shiver.

There was something behind the TV, but whatever it was, was dripping a red liquid. Grissom picked it up. It was a CSI vest. He could only guess whose it was. The vest was covered in the red liquid. Grissom shook the vest off, revealing the stitching on the outside of the vest. It clearly read, 'SIDLE'. His heart was now in his stomach. The liquid didn't seem thick enough to be blood, and it had a smell to it- not of copper, it smelt like ketchup.

"Ketchup…" he sighed in relief as he bagged the vest. He walked out of the room and walked outside.

"Did you find anything?" asked Brass walking over to him. Grissom held up the evidence bag containing the vest. "I saw some video feed of where the guy's keeping her; and this isn't blood; it's ketchup," Grissom said putting the evidence bag in the car. "I'd hope so," Brass sighed. "Alright, call me when you get any updates," he said walking out. Grissom got into his car and drove back to the lab.

12 more hours- the number haunted Grissom. They only had 12 hours to find Sara. It was now late into the night. Grissom took off his glasses, closing his eyes to think. He slowly drifted off to sleep when…

"Hey Griss." The voice alone awakened him. He could have sworn by it- the voice was hers. But when he looked around his office, no one was there. This made him realize just how much she meant to him. He couldn't imagine not coming to work with no Sara there to greet him. It just wouldn't be the same, and he wouldn't smile anymore.

A loud beeping made by his computer interrupted his thoughts; he quickly turned his attention to the monitor on his desk and put on his glasses. The screen flashed and the man from before was now visible on his screen.

"Hello again, Mr. Grissom," the man said. "Since you haven't found us yet, I've decided I'll go ahead and tell you my name. My name is Hugh James," he said with a slight smile across his face. "And…" he said moving around. Soon, two people were visible on the computer monitor. "You've already met her," he said pointing to Sara, who he held next to him.

Sara was now awake, but Grissom could tell she didn't want to be. Hugh smiled as he moved his hand around to his side pulling something out of his jean pocket. It was long and smooth- Grissom quickly saw that it was a knife.

"Oh god, no…" Grissom said, almost jumping out of his seat.

"Time isn't up yet," he said smiling. "But I want a little fun," he said holding the knife up to her throat. Sara was petrified by fear- her entire body was shaking and she closed her eyes, thinking to herself that this was going to be her last moments on this earth.

The man held the knife up closer to her throat until a drop of blood slid down Sara's neck and fell onto his hand. Sara winced and cried out a little as the blade has cut her skin. "Does it pain you to see her suffer, Mr. Grissom?" the man asked, still totally calm. "If it does, then FIND ME!" he said and the computer monitor turned black. No more sound was heard through the tiny black speakers.

Grissom quickly got out of his seat and ran into the break room. Everyone was sitting around, going through papers or trying not to fall asleep.

"Catherine, the last time the kidnapper struck he took you guys to Wilston Industries, right?" Grissom asked her. "Uh…yeah," she said a little confused. "Alright, that's where we're going. There's a good chance that might be where he's got Sara," he said running out of the lab with the rest of the team following behind him.

TBC…


	4. 9 Hours and a New Lead

Everyone drove towards the large warehouse. They felt their feet pushing down extra hard on the accelerator. In the distance, the old warehouse was visible over their dashboards. They stopped when they reached the old building. Grissom literally hopped out of his car, drawing his gun.

Brass ran ahead of him, gun drawn. The police spread out around the building. "Las Vegas police! Open up!" Brass said outside the door. He kicked down the door and ran inside. His flashlight showed the surroundings in the room- they didn't see anything, but then, Brass shined his light on a knife on the floor and a single drop of blood.

Grissom ran inside. "They were definitely here," he said looking around. "And they still could be," he said walking around. "I'm still securing the building," Brass said stepping in front of me. "So stay behind me at all times."

They walked through the huge building- there had to be at least 50 doors to several separate rooms. Grissom got irritated each time they would go inside a room, only to find a life-sized dummy- sometimes it had a knife stuck in it; sometimes it had a bullet through it.

The man was taunting them, yet again. They kept walking through the building, and did for at least two hours. Then, finally, they reached a door, with what sounded like voices coming from the inside of the room. Brass kicked down the door and ran inside. Grissom ran in front of him, despite the man's orders.

"DAMMIT!" he yelled. Inside was a large screen; the kidnapper was talking.

"Mr. Grissom…so you've finally come to the warehouse? Well, I'll tell you something- you're not any closer to finding her than you were 22 hours ago! 10 more hours…tsk, tsk, tsk…" he said sighing. "You know, if you really cared about this woman you'd think you'd of found her by now, hmm?" he smiled a little. "Well, I'll just let you know that I'm still debating on how I'm going to end her life. Hurry up, Mr. Grissom! The tension is eating me up!"

And the screen went black. That was it. Grissom was so sure that this was where he was keeping her. And now, they had only 10 more hours before that sick maniac killed her. Grissom walked out of the warehouse, feeling utterly defeated and worthless.

Grissom drove back to the lab. He ran inside angrily. "Alright! Catherine- I want you to search the computers for any information on a man named Hugh James!" he said walking through the halls. "But I thought our guy's name was-" "Screw the other name!" Grissom yelled across the lab. "Warrick, Nick- I want you to search her apartment again- we might've missed something," he said walking into his office.

Grissom shuffled through his papers- nine hours to go and they still had nothing. This guy was impatient, and he was anxious for the killing to begin. Grissom sighed as he walked out of his office.

"Grissom!" Catherine came running down the halls. "There's an old house out near Henderson- they were supposed to tear it down three years ago, but they never did," she said handing him a paper she had printed. "People have been saying they saw a car drive up and two people got out. One appeared to be male, and he was carrying someone in his arms."

Grissom's heart sank. That was it. It had to be.

"Call Brass, now! Tell him to get all the available police units out there, now!" Grissom said running out and getting into his car. He called Nick and Warrick. "Nick, go back to the lab with Warrick. I think we've found her," he said and hung up his phone, driving off.


	5. Reunited

Grissom drove as fast as he could to the house. He couldn't lose Sara. He couldn't bear the thoughts he was having in his mind- what if she was already dead, and he was driving to her body? No! She couldn't be dead!

As Grissom arrived at the house, the door flew open. A man walked out of the building, applauding. He had bright green eyes and dark brown hair. He was tall and muscular.

"Bravo, Mr. Grissom, bravo. I'm surprised you still have eight hours left," he said smiling.

"Where's Sara?" Grissom asked, more than irritated.

"Oh, right. Well, she's inside," he said. "And of course, she's not dead…well, yet anyways," he said with a slight laugh. Brass and the rest of the police showed up. He ran out of his squad car.

"What's with this guy?" Brass asked Grissom.

"He's insane," Grissom told him. "Is she in there or not?" Grissom asked angrily.

"I said yes, didn't I? You can take my word for it," he told them. "Come, come. I'll show you around." He walked into the building.

Grissom and Brass were left stunned. Was this guy inviting them in for tea and cookies, or what? They just followed him; Brass with his gun drawn.

"This is a very beautiful place, really." He walked through it. Brass and Grissom saw nothing beautiful about it. There were broken windows and the roof looked like it would collapse at any second. It was dirty and spider webs were everywhere.

"Where is she?" Grissom finally asked. "I've had enough talk now. Tell me where she is."

"Oh, you know what? I really don't remember now…" he said shrugging.

Grissom walked over to him and grabbed him by his collar. "Listen, I've had enough of your little games. TELL me!" he said staring the man in the eye.

The man smiled. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. She's already dead," he said sighing.

Grissom's heart sank, but part of him didn't believe him. "You're not serious."

"Oh yes I am," he said laughing a little. "I'm sorry Mr. Grissom, you're too late."

Grissom threw the man aside. Was he really telling the truth? How could she be dead? He still had plenty of time left to find her! But…this guy wanted to kill her, he was anxious for the bloodshed to begin. Grissom held the tears back in his eyes.

"Jim, get that bastard out of here," he said, his voice a bit shaky.

"Right, come on," Brass said, trying to hold back tears of his own and dragging the man off.

Grissom sat down on an old stool in the building. He was too late- he couldn't believe it. He was too late and that psycho had killed her. The tears were falling down his face in straight lines and he sobbed louder and louder. He just kept wondering if she suffered.

His thoughts were interrupted by a noise made in another room. Grissom quickly looked up. He grabbed his flashlight and walked over to the room it came from.

"Is someone there?" he asked moving closer to the door. He heard a moan. The voice sounded female, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"Sara?" he moved closer. "Sara, is that you?" he opened the door slowly…

"Oh my god!" There lay Sara; she had a large gash across her forehead and a deep cut across her stomach. She held her arm in her lap as she winced every time she moved around.

"Sara! God, are you okay?" He thought that was a stupid question. She was covered in blood- did she look okay?

"Sara, it's Grissom! Please, open your eyes, Sara…" he looked at the pained expression on her face.

She slowly opened her eyes and stared at Grissom for a minute. Her vision was a bit blurry, but she made his figure out immediately. "Grissom…" she was too weak to move.

"Oh god! Sara!" he hugged her tightly.

"Agh…Grissom…" she said motioning towards her arm and bleeding stomach.

"Oh, yes…of course. Sorry, Sara," he said backing away. "Come on, there's an ambulance outside and the police are here," he said lifting her up.

"Is everyone else okay?" she asked closing her eyes.

"Yes, everyone's fine, but are you okay?"

"I'll live," she smiled a little. She was glad to be back with Grissom.

Brass saw Grissom carrying her out of the building. He quickly grabbed his cell phone.

"Catherine! Come over here now! Tell the guys to get off their sorry ass and come down here too! We've found her! She's alive!" he said happily and hung up.

Grissom laid Sara on the gurney in the ambulance and stepped inside with her. He held her hand as they bandaged her up. His eyes noticed the small cut across her neck and he gently rubbed his fingers across it.

"When he did that…" Sara started, remembering when he had the knife to her throat. Her eyes were still closed. "I was so sure I was gonna die."

A tear ran down Grissom's face. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. He felt Sara's hand wipe the tear away.

"Hey, you're the big unemotional bug guy, remember? Don't go crying on me," she smiled opening her eyes and grabbing his hand. He smiled as she brought her hand and gently pressed his lips against her fingers.

Catherine, Warrick, Nick, and Greg ran up after they had driven over there. They looked at the scene in front of them unfold.

"Aww…" Nick smiled. "That's so sweet…"

Warrick just cheered. "Whoo!"

Catherine was running around and she hugged Warrick. "It's about time!"

Greg groaned. "Aw, man…" he said sighing. "Oh, well. I can still flirt," he said moving his eyebrows up and down.

And with that, the ambulance doors closed and Grissom and Sara went off to the hospital.

"Grissom, I'm sorry that this whole thing happened," Sara told him.

"Sara, it wasn't your fault, do don't apologize."

"But—"

"No buts, alright?"

"Okay," she smiled.

Sara had been through a terrible ordeal, but she knew that the team was there to help her through it. _And especially Grissom…_ she smiled thinking to herself.


End file.
